1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable communication devices, and relates in particular to a personal phone device having improved operational features.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a portable phone device comprises a radio unit, a receiver, a transmitter, keyboard section and, a display section. The phone is designed to be portable so that the overall length of the phone accommodates the receiver fitting over the ear and the transmitter locating near the mouth of the user. The result is a somewhat bulky unit detracting from its portability. For this reason, some portable phones are designed to fold in such a way that the casing with the transmitter and the display unit is hinged to another casing with the receiver and the keyboard section so that the two sections can be freely folded for portability and unfolded for communication.
FIG. 6 is an illustration of such a conventional portable phone unit disclosed in a Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, H4-307841. The phone unit 21 shown in FIG. 6 comprises a first casing member 31 and a second casing member 32 freely rotatably connected to the first casing member 31 through a hinge section 24. The first casing member 31 comprises a speaker section 22 having an internal transmitter and the keyboard section 23. With respect to the top connecting end, at the transverse hinge section 24, of the first casing member 31, the speaker section 22 is at the bottom end of the unit, and the keyboard section 23 occupies a fairly large longitudinal portion of the total device area. The second casing member 32 extends away from the hinge section 24, and comprises a listening section 25, with its internal receiver device, and a display section 26 near the hinge section 24.
The second casing member 32 is freely hinged to enable the member 32 to swing in the direction {circle around (1)}, {circle around (2)} indicated by a bi-directional arrow enabling the second casing member 32 to be housed in the keyboard section of the first casing member 31 to make the phone unit convenient for carrying. When the second casing member 32 is housed in the first casing member 31, the keyboard section 23 and the display section 26 are all hidden from the user""s view. When the second casing member 32 is rotated in the direction of {circle around (2)}, the keyboard section 23 and the display section 26 become visible and the unit is ready for use.
FIG. 7 shows another example of a the conventional portable phones disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, H8-163219. This phone unit 40 comprises a first casing member 41, a second casing member 44 and a third casing member 45, where both of the latter two casing members are rotatably attached to the first casing member 41 with respective hinge sections 42, 43. The width dimensions of the second and third casing member 44, 45 are the same as the width dimension of the first casing member 41, but their length dimensions are shorter. By rotating the second and third casing members 44, 45 away from each other, about the hinge members 42, 43, the unit is made to open for use, as illustrated in FIG. 8, by exposing the front panel of the first casing member 41. By rotating the second and third casing members 44, 45 towards each other, the front panel of the casing member 41 is closed.
The first casing member 41 is provided with a display section 46 including a liquid crystal display (LCD) occupying approximately over its entire front surface, and an antennae 47 is provided on its top end surface.
The second casing member 44 is provided with an external listening section 48. The third casing member 45 is provided with a keyboard section 49 on its inside surface, and a speaker section 50 at the tip end of the inside surface.
By folding the second and third casing members 44, 45 to contact the first casing member 41, the overall length of a folded phone unit becomes the same as that of the first casing member 41, and the phone unit is ready for carrying.
To use the phone unit, only the third casing member 45 is opened, as illustrated in FIG. 9, and the user places his ear on the listening section 48 of the second casing member 44 in its closed position, and speaks through the speaker section 50 disposed at the tip of the third casing member 45. In this condition, the keyboard section 49 is accessible, and the user is able to phone out using the keyboard section 49, and the user is able to confirm any information from the lower section 46a of the display section 46. In this condition, the upper section 46b of the display section 46 of the first casing member 41 is hidden by the second casing member 44.
When using the unit for data transmission, the second and third casing members 44, 45 are opened so that the entire surface of the display section 46 of the first casing member becomes visible and data communication is carried out by operating the function keys while viewing a number of information on the display section 46.
One of the problems with the conventional devices presented above is that, in the case of the phone device 21 shown in FIG. 6 for example, the device is being carried by folding the second casing member 32 on the keyboard section 23, so that the keyboard section 23 and the display section 26 are entirely hidden from view by the second casing member 32, and it is not possible to operate the keyboard section 23. The same problem is encountered in the phone device 40 shown in FIGS. 7xcx9c9 such that when the device is being carried by folding the second and third casing members 44, 45 on the first casing member 41, the keyboard section 49 and the display section 46 are entirely hidden from view and the keys cannot be operated. For this reason, when it is necessary to power on the device to be in a call standby mode, the folded device must be opened to turn on the power. Also, when a call tone is received while the phone device is being carried in the standby mode, the user must open the folded phone device to change over the device to the transmission mode, making it difficult to change to the transmission mode quickly. Furthermore, transmission operation cannot be performed unless the device is first unfolded to access the keyboard, such as entering the destination phone number, making operation of the device cumbersome in many cases. Further, although by folding the phone unit, the overall length of the folded device becomes about half of the unfolded length, but the thickness of the folded device is increased by the component pieces, and it is not necessarily certain that portability is superior.
On the other hand, even when the device is being carried and not being used for transmission, sometimes the user need to know some information, such as identity of the caller, signal sensitivity, cell boundaries, battery life remaining and the presence of phone messages. However, the conventional phone devices 21, 40 do not permit the user to check the display, because the display sections 26, 46 are entirely hidden from view in the folded carrying condition.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable phone device to enable viewing the function keys and a minimum necessary display area even when the device is folded so that the functionality is improved without compromising portability.
The object has been achieved in a portable phone device comprising: a first casing member and a second casing member freely rotatably joined to the first casing member about a transverse rotation axis disposed in a plane containing the first casing member, wherein a longitudinal dimension of the first casing member is different from a longitudinal length of the second casing member, and the first casing member includes first component parts including at least a display section, a keyboard section, a transmitter section and a part of a receiver section, and the second casing member includes other component parts excluding the first component parts.
Accordingly, by folding the second casing member over the first casing member, the phone device is made shorter for ease of carrying. Further, when the phone is in the folded position, the two members do not superimpose totally so that function keys can be accessed through an available viewable area to facilitate certain operations such as power on/off, mode switching, and message dispatching and the like.
In a variation of the basic design, the display section and the operational section can be located on different surfaces, thus making the function keys accessible to enable to perform communication operations even when the phone is in the folded condition.
Furthermore, by using a liquid crystal touch panel for the keyboard section, the display and keyboard functions can be combined in one location so that the size of the operational area can be reduced significantly to make the phone device even more compact, compared with the conventional personal communication devices having separate display and keyboard sections.